504 



Journal of Agricultural Research 



Vol. X, No. lo 



It would appear that boiling for one-half hour extracts as much 

 material from the chips as cold maceration for 24 hours. These boiled 

 extracts are all more highly colored than the cold macerated extracts, 

 and it is to be expected that substances other than those found in the 

 macerated extracts are dissolved from the wood under the influence of 

 the higher temperature. Figure 2 illustrates graphically the results 

 given in Table II. It will be observed that comparatively little extract 



is obtained after four 

 hours' boiling; there- 

 fore it would hardly 

 be economical to boil 

 the chips longer than 

 four or five hours. 



/.yTS 



/.SO 



\ 



\ 



/.2S 



/.O 



0.7S 



O.SO 



(c) Influence of Size op 

 Chips on Extraction 



Whenever sub- 

 stances are extracted 

 by maceration, the 

 state of subdivision 

 or comminution of the 

 substance is of great 

 importance. As a 

 rule the finer the sub- 

 division the more 

 thorough is the ac- 

 tion of the solvent. 

 To determine wheth- 

 er the reduction of 

 quassia wood to fine 

 powder would materi- 

 ally increase the quan- 

 tity of extract, a 

 quantity of the wood 

 was separated into a 

 series of portions, 

 varying in size from 

 pieces 6 to 8 cm. long and i to 2 cm. wide, to a No. 200 powder ^ In 

 each case 10 gm. of the wood were macerated for 24 hours in 500 c. c.of 

 distilled water. After filtering the mixture and adding enough water 

 to make 500 c. c, the entire quantity was evaporated and the quantity 

 of extract was determined. A second extraction was made in each case. 

 Table III is a tabulation of the results obtained. 



0.2s 



0.0 



/ a 3 '^ 



A/(/AfS£:f? Of- exTf?/^cr/ON 



Fig. I. — Graph showing the percentage of extract obtained by repeated 

 soaking of lo gm. of quassia chips vi-ith 500 c. c. of Vfater for 2 and 24 

 hours, respectively. 



' A No. 200 powder is one that will pass through a sieve having 2C3o meshes to the inch. 



